QWin 2017: Express Web connection is failing for many of my financial institutions.

I am using Quicken 2017 Premier Version R4, Build 26.1.4.5 on Windows 10. Mondo patch has been applied and I have spent another 6 recent hours with Quicken support diagnosing the problem without resolution. I continue to get the cc-501 error and related messages like "it is not your fault" when attempting to reestablish a connection.

I have several financial institutions, some with multiple accounts (checking, savings, CD;s, etc.) . Many institutions use Direct connect while a few others use Express Web connect (EWC).

EVERY institution using EWC is failing. EVERY institution using Direct Connect downloads and updates successfully.

With help from Quicken we have determined my data files are not damaged or corrupt and have ruled out all other client side possibilities. Quicken now points to my financial institutions to resolve the problem and it is up to me to work with my institutions to resolve it. Quicken will not assist according to the techs I have dealt with.

I have reached out to my primary credit union who uses EWC. They report they have other customers complaining of the same issue and have diagnosed their end and have escalated the matter to Quicken several times. They are certain the failure point is at Quicken. Following is the last response I received from my CU:

"I apologize that you are having to manually enter in the transactions. I know that quicken is saying that it is on our side, but we have looked into this issue multiple times and the error message that is being received, we researched it and it is an error on their end. We have contacted them multiple times about this issue and looking to get it resolved. We have been told that they are looking in to it."

My question and point is, WHY IS QUICKEN NOT RESOLVING THIS ISSUE? The error codes you provide indicate it is a server side error! You even "apologize" saying it is not my fault this is failing.

I had this problem in Quicken 2015 beginning the fall of 2016 and spent countless hours attempting to resolve it. I finally upgraded to Q 2017 hoping it would not have the problem but it does!

Help us Quicken, we need your help NOW. If not I will move on after successfully using your products for 25 years.

For what bank/etc are you using EWC? And, a customary reason for any EWC to fail is that the bank/etc changed their website without giving Q sufficient notice to enable Q to change the scripts that "scrape" the site for your data.

So, in that case, the bank/etc would of course claim that 'everything's fine on their side' when in reality it's their failure to provide timely notice that's the real problem ... and you just need to wait it out until THAT fix bubbles up to the top ... after those banks/etc that DID provide timely notice.

Thank you NotACPA. I am with Veridian Credit Union, the largest in the state and a longtime leader in online banking. They sent the following to me last week.

"Direct connect has not been offered since before 2012 and it will not be offered in the future. The issues that other users are having were caused quicken server errors and we did contact quicken during those times to make them aware."

According to Veridian they have contacted Quicken multiple times on this issue but have not seen resolution. This issue for me began in mid to late 2016 in Quicken 2015 so there seems to be a 4 year gap to the suggestion Veridian did not give timely notice to Quicken. I've been successfully downloading transactions weekly for many years.

Something has changed at or with Quicken to now cause the failures which are identified within Quicken 2017 as being server errors. Quicken needs to step up their support game and get this fixed.

The last phone support call I was in, the tech suggested I should take out Premier support for mere pennies a day. My response was why would I pay for more support when they are not providing it on a widely know problem in their infrastructure. There are dozens of posts on this so it is a known unresolved problem. I've yet to see a single response from the Quicken support team.

Hold down CTRL+SHIFT on your keyboard and click Contact Info (at the top of the window) with your mouse.

In the dialog box that is displayed, select the problem account from the drop down menu.

With the account selected, check the box for Financial Institution Branding and Profile and click on the Refreshbutton.

Repeat steps 2-4 for each account that is having problems.

Click the Update/Send button at the top of the Online Center to complete the connection.

Once you have completed the above, de-activate and re-activate the account following the steps below.

Go to Tools> Account List, click Edit for account you need to change. Click Online Services
tab, Deactivate. Then use set up online services to reactivate. As you
go through the login process, you will be asked to Add/Link/Ignore the
existing account(s) found. Choose LINK (NOT Add) and carefully match the account found during the login process to your Quicken account.

Thanks NotACPA. To clarify, Veridian does NOT and has not supported Direct Connect for several years. They are EWC and Web Connect. I have taken each of the steps in your suggestion from yesterday multiple times to include going thru them with the Q tech in the past 2 weeks.

I have other accounts such as Target, Kohls, JCP, etc that use EWC. Every EWC connection I have fails. It is not just Veridian. I have many accounts that use Direct Connect none of which fail.

So I still maintain something is not working across all Express Web connections. I just tried reconnecting each of the EWC accounts and they continue to fail. Directs work.

Quicken is still not weighing in on this which is a major disappointment. They could at least check in to say they will investigate the examples I show here and they experienced first hand during my support call after exhaustive process of elimination and diagnostics.

In case of CC-501,
502, 506 errors deactivate all accounts
with this bank using the same bank logon ID, including any old, long closed, hidden and forgotten accounts
that might still be activated. If you miss one, the Quicken server involved in
handling Express Web Connect - connected accounts will not start with a clean
slate and you will continue to have this problem.

To deactivate an Account

Go to Tools >
Account List.

Click Edit for
account you need to change.

Click Online
Services tab.
If account has been activated for Online Bill Payment, deactivate this service
first.

Click Deactivate
button in Online Setup box.

Repeat for any other
accounts that need to be deactivated.

Restart Quicken to
make sure that the changes are fully applied.

To (re-)activate accounts for downloading

Create a backup of
your Quicken data file. This is a restore point, should something go horribly
wrong during the next steps.
Go to Tools / Add Account to reactivate the accounts. As you go thru the setup
process, Quicken will identify all accounts it can download.
Select an account type, e.g. Checking
Enter the name of your bank and click Next.
Some banks have multiple choices, Consumer vs. Business accounts,
Express Web Connect vs. Direct Connect. Be sure to pick the correct
one.
Enter your credentials, select Save this password (if using password vault) and
click Connect.

You should now see a
list of one or more accounts found at your bank that you can activate. If you
are activating an existing account, make sure the dropdown button for that
account says LINK. If it says ADD, change it to LINK and select the correct
Quicken account. If it already says
LINK, click the button and select the correct existing account register. If you
do not do this, then the account will be added as a new account instead of
being linked to the existing account register.

Repeat this step for
each account listed.
Change ADD to IGNORE for any account on the list that you do not want to
activate at this time.

Thank you UKR. I have taken these steps multiple (too many) times in attempt to clear things out.

I have setup new data files and tried it. I've setup new accounts and tried it. Most recently I did took these steps again with the Quicken tech watching remotely. Unfortunately it is not resolving the issue.

The only way I can get transactions is manually downloading each account and importing using .QFX files. Then it tells me there is a better connection then it fails again.

Quicken seems to be off line on this issue as they do not seem to ever respond. Thanks for your suggestion.

I have similar problems and if I try this too often my online banking account becomes locked and I have to call my financial institution. This has happened so many times they know my voice when I call.

Same problem here. It has been a week and I'm still getting the error message that my bank password isn't correct. This has happened to me twice before too, just like the poster above stated. Come on Quicken!! I even tried to deactivate and reactivate and it still tells me my bank password is incorrect. Pathetic.

Called my bank, and they have done nothing on their end to create this problem with error messages on the bank password. Quicken did something, and I can't get any transactions to download and haven't been able to for about two weeks now. Can anyone help? If not, do you know who I can call? I've looked all over for a customer service number and can't find one. If I can't get this going, I'm going to have to kill my Quicken and pick up another service that will do the same thing. This is ridiculous....not the first time I've had trouble with this either.

I'm curious DLL if you have any institutions that use Direct Connect. You quickly see them by going to Tools -> Account List and scroll through your accounts by looking at the Transaction Download (?) column of information. It will indicate Yes or No and the type of connection.

Figures. Sorry though! I wish Quicken would get off the dime and do something about it. If it were just one or two failing I would suspect a client or institution issue but like me it's all of your Express Web Connect accounts. Quicken needs to get it fixed or declare they no longer support EWC.

I attempted to resolve this again by creating another new fresh quicken file. No other accounts or transactions are contained in the new data file. I added an account from Veridian CU. I went through the gyrations of connecting and returned the following:

It brought back the accounts but says they are unknown types. The error says Quicken did not get enough information to add the account then suggests trying it again in a few days. I'm running out of more days.

@Roger Slightly related, Greenshot is a free screenshot grabber that has great editing features such as being able to obfuscate (fuzz out) parts a lot easier than the squiggly line method that you had to do.Windows Snipping Tool is okay, but you can't do much editing with it.

If you haven't done
so already, especially in case of the "Unknown Type", I'd say it's time to contact Quicken Support via Chat or Phone
at http://www.quicken.com/contact-support and report an Online Banking issue.
Scroll down to the blue box at the bottom of the Support webpage for access to
Chat or Phone Support.
Please let us know if you were able to get it resolved through Support (or
not).

Thanks UKR! I've been on a recent long chat followed by a very long phone call to Q support. They have taken me thru every imaginable diagnositc and both concluded it is a EWC issue. They've seen the errors and results of attempting to connect.

Problem is, they say it's NOT THEIR ISSUE. They tell me I'm on my own to work with my financial institutions to resolve at that end. Thus this thread asking for help.

Quicken is failing to resolve what I think is a wide spread issue based on all the posts I've read on this and feedback from my financial institution. They should be willing to take the errors, logs and other indicators and work technical person to technical person with the institution but they refuse to do so.

That is terrible support for a product I and many others have spent a lot $$ on over the years staying up with their releases. If you have other insight on how I can get them to respond, I am very open to suggestions.

There are other programs with strengths and weaknesses. Each has to make their own decision based on whatever evaluation they choose. I know where I am going if Quicken implements the subscription plan as they did in Canada.

Yes there are several but none really have the connections to the number of institutions and functionality. I tried CountAbout but it like others are more limited that Quicken has been in the past. You can search for "Quicken alternatives" and see what is out there.

(1) no tell
(2) none as flexible as Q, maybe due to familiarity
(3) each of us has our own way of doing things, all programs out there don't accommodate some.
(4) some features more important to you than me, and visaversa
(5) I don't want to get kicked out
(6) if Q does, and my current license runs out, I will tell and why I made the choice. Right now I'm keeping two sets of books.

Fair enough Hershey....I did a little research myself this afternoon. Think I found one to try and I'm just crossing my fingers that it works. At this point, I need something.....nothing we do seems to resolve my problem nor Roger's problem, and I don't see that changing. I can't wait around forever for Q to get their act together.

We are using Quicken currently. We want our data downloaded from our FIs. Using web express is never going to be fixed by Quicken. The FIs refuse to take it on. So we can choose to get our FI to interface via Direct Connect, or we can log into the FI site and initiate each account download from there. Each has its drawback. Quicken refuses to take an official stance. We choose one of the two mentioned or give up.

There are other programs. Some, like Mint, stores all your data on their servers. I don't like that. Others won't print checks. Some don't handle investment accounts. Some don't download. I am looking at MoneySpire. Not because of Quickens download problems. I am going to dump Quicken if they implement the subscription policy and lock our files read only if we stop renewing.

DLL, Good luck finding one that works for you. It isn't easy, but Q the company is not addressing their customers issues.

Splasher, I appreciate you guys, the SuperUsers. I really do. I can work around the download issues. I have two issues with Quicken the company that are going to push me away after over 20 years. (1) They appear to not be addressing real problems with the code. They are introducing new features without resolving the old problems. And the new features bring their own problems with them. I believe their focus is on coming up with something new to offer to improve sales even if it doesn't work. And now I believe they are headed down a subscription path. My primary issue with the subscription path is if they follow the Canada experiment, they will make our file read only if we don't renew. Even if we don't renew because their software and customer support stinks. Where would the customer support be if it wasn't for you guys that volunteer your knowledge and time here.

Hershey, you may be okay with it, but I'm not. I'm not computer savvy like apparently you are and all the SuperUsers are. I can't work around the download issues because I don't know how else to do it. I tried CountAbout and within the first 5 minutes, of course my little rural bank isn't found on their list and they won't add a bank unless they have a certain number of users from there. I tried MoneySpire, and every time I load one .qif file, it changes the balance of another account that I just loaded. I'm stuck and I don't know what to do. I appreciate everyone who has helped as well. I just wish there was a better answer for a little person like me who doesn't have a lot of knowledge when it comes to this stuff. I could navigate myself through Quicken fairly easily and came over to them from Microsoft Money. The ease of the transactions downloading automatically was the pull for me.....now what?!!

It appears you have three choices.(1) Use whatever you believe in to try to influence Quicken the company to resolve the known issues with their product. (I wouldn't depend on that based on recent performance.)(2) Continue to evaluate the other software programs that are out there.(3) Expend the significant amount of time and energy to learn the alternatives within Quicken.

Personally, I believe that (3) is a great option if you have the time, but the subscription issue is still a significant factor for me. (2) is probably the best option, but it also will require time and effort to transfer data and learn the new programs. Today, (1) is for dreamers.

I agree with the problems that all are having with the banks, in my case "Veridian CU" I've tried 4 webchats with quicken and they all work for a short while, then start failing. I, too, monitor 3 accounts at Veridian and one works while the other 2 fail, CC-501 error or just can't find the account "ie not enough data". Every time I contact Q, they try the same fix and nothing happens. I've purchased Q2017 and completed the Mondu update and see no fixes. Where do we go for help?

John I just heard from Veridian again this morning in response to asking how I could get screen shots to them. The representative again says several employees are having the same issue so sending the errors would not be of any benefit. They and customers alike are experiencing the same failures and feeling the pain. The fact employees are experiencing it would indicate to me the problem is likely not with the CU.

If Q won't step up to the problem with EWC, which BTW was working fine in Dec, Jan and 3 weeks in Feb, we have no good alternative but to manually download or fold the tent on Quicken. I agree with many of the comments above on alternatives. There are lots of alternatives to Q and each has significant shortcomings.

Someone applied a patch or made some other change that has clobbered the functionality and they won't address it.

I am interested and a bit concerned to hear our Canadian friends are now paying a subscription fee. Got more info on that?

I do not know if this is 100% accurate.About $100 Canadian each year.Failure to renew results in (1) Data file being frozen read only. (2) You can not enter any new transaction. (3) All on line services terminated. That's a very brief summary of what I understand.

NOT good. I think lots of people will bail out on that model and having to layout $75 US a year. Especially since their product has the issues it has which they are not addressing. It would be one thing if the product was rock solid but it's not and certainly not like it used to be.

I have one bank and one store branded credit card that uses Express Web Connect. They download just fine...every single day.

I'm still betting that the problem with Veridian is AT Veridian. The people you talk to, either on the phone or at the bank, just aren't knowledgable to know if IT changed anything. The fact that even their employees can't download from Veridian makes ME believe it's a Veridian problem, not Quicken. Especially if it's Express Web Connect. And if it's a smaller bank (and I'm not saying Veridian is a smaller bank), then IT services may be outsourced to another company to provide services.

My bank branch manager has zero clue on what goes on regarding downloading transactions into Quicken. He manages the bank. He doesn't manage the website.

So, if the frustration and need to download transactions from your bank is paramount, then switch banks already. Your bank isn't providing you with the service that you need. Let's face it. In 2017, do you really need to physically go to the bank anymore? I visit maybe twice a year, at most. I do all my banking online. I pay my bills online from my bank's site or pay them online on my biller's site. I make transfers from investment accounts to the bank and vice versa. All without leaving my home. I don't even need a local bank anymore.

Also, did you ask Veridian personnel, since they acknowledge a problem with connecting to Quicken, if THEY have contacted Quicken to get this to work? Seems like there is a huge disconnect between Veridian and Quicken.

And finally, I've been using Mint "parallel" to Quicken for 15 months now. Rock solid product that downloads every financial institution that I have, including some that I can't download from in Quicken because they are "wacky" annuities. But Mint found those accounts and I can download from those.

I use the outside software MintToReport ($29 annual subscription, $15 to renew...but not renewing does NOT disable the software) to read the .csv Mint transaction report. I can then customize and memorize as many reports with as many options as I want.

I tag the transactions in Mint according to the tax line item (such as Schedule A Medical, 1099R, Schedule B, etc). I can create reports according to tag(s) and have a nice report all ready to go for tax time.

As far as investments in Mint, I really only look at the balance in those accounts. I don't track performance so much with Mint, as investment tracking is really lacking. But I can track the performance of my investments from the individual investment company sites, if I need to. It's rather easy and something I don't do every week in Quicken anyways.

And I like the no nonsense budgeting in Mint. Simple. Easy to set up. Easy to follow.

And their mobile app is rock solid. Never a hiccup. Mirrors exactly what I see on the desktop version.

OK, you're all going to say that you don't like your financial data residing in the cloud somewhere and you need to have that data locally. But if you're downloading transactions, you're data is already in the cloud or on someone else's server too.

I've made my decision if Quicken goes subscription with read only access to my data file if the subscription terminates. I'm jumping ship to something else and as of now Mint will be it.

@gmails, I agree with your evaluation and if you are comfortable having all your financial data residing on someone's server that has no financial commitment or tie to you. Great! My data is on servers of the financial institutions that I have dealings with. They have vested interest in keeping their sites secure. When the data is downloaded to our personal machines, it is transitory. Someone would have to break the security and catch the download in the few milliseconds that it takes. We each have our own unique issues, You and I agree on the problem, we have different goals for the solution. Peace be with you.

Hershey, FWIW, if you use EWC, your data is also in the Quicken cloud on the EWC aggregation server. Regarding Mint, last I checked it was still pretty useless for investments and planning, other than budget. If you don't need planning functions or investment tracking beyond balances, most banks offer a free aggregation product to track balances and transactions. Quicken's real value is in it's planning tools that are unmatched in the personal financial management software universe. For me, Quicken's Tax Planner saves me more in taxes each year than the annual cost to update Quicken to the latest version (Amazon price). But again, if planning isn't relevant for you, look for a bank with a free product.

Adding- regarding credit unions, they likely are using the same 3rd party provider to support EWC whereas the big banks you listed do it in-house. Some like Chase offer free direct connect so you should try that.

I said the MAJORITY of Express Web Connect problems are with smaller banks, mostly credit unions.

I did not say ALL of them.

Also, have you contacted ANY of the banks that YOU are having problems with? Since they are larger banks, they should have personnel familiar with Quicken downloads that could help.

Going to Quicken support and talking to someone in India is fruitless.

Also, as Markus alluded to Direct Connect may be available to those banks you listed. They may require a minimum deposit or charge a monthly fee, but they do have Direct Connect. I know for a fact that Chase and Wells Fargo have it.

You can search your hard drive for the fidir.exe file and you can open that file and see what download method(s) are available for those institutions.

@gmalis, I have my downloads under control, in spite of Quicken. My issue is with those defending Quicken on this issue, when it is in their court to resolve. I have spoken with my bank's IT support, and I have solutions that work for me. NO, EWC does not work. And the IT personnel I talked with at three of those very large banks, assured me that they understood the problem in minute detail and the problem was in Quicken's court to resolve. One of them suggested I call Quicken and get them to contact her and offer her consulting job to fix it.

Actions Windows Desktop Users Can Take to Remedy Connection Errors and Password Change IssuesThe types of errors you are reporting are inherent to the EWC method. They also typically create exception reports that Quicken's service providers will use to fix the issue when they get around to it. If the steps in the link do not resolve the issue, you will just have to wait or contact support. Support should be taking you to a higher level because EWC is a Quicken problem, not an FI problem. FI's that offer Web Connect QFX downloads are usually the more reliable EWC FI's because they are not scraped.

Have you cleared this post with other SuperUsers and Champions. I mean the ones that have been swearing that the EWC issues are NOT QUICKEN'S FAULT. That they are the FI's fault. have assured us that the few hundred FI's that Quicken Users have had problems with all have problems and Quicken is not at fault.

Oh! My! Your post is so contrary to the story being told in this community. And I happen to be is 100% accurate. By the way, I would hope that the Quicken service providers are actually working these issues and you are not just stating your well intentioned prayers.

Most EWC banks do not pay Quicken for the service. They aren't affiliated with Quicken at all, other than they let a 3rd party aggregator, not Quicken but a Quicken contractor, connect on a user's behalf and download or scrape the data from the website. It's not a bank's "error" when they change their website layout in a manner that breaks the EWC aggregator logon, even though it might cause a disruption to Quicken EWC users. The bank has every right to change their layout whenever they want and no obligation to notify Quicken. That's what makes EWC such a challenge to keep up with, changes happen all the time and sometimes they break the connection. Then once enough exception reports are logged, the 3rd party aggregator goes about troubleshooting and fixing the problem, at least until the next change is made. If it's a big outage, Quicken support will notify the aggregator, but it's likely they already know about it. CU's just don't generate enough traffic to raise the red flag consistently when there is a problem, but over the years the monitoring for issues does seem to be getting better.

The bank's not compensated by Quicken and Quicken's not compensated by the bank. The bank allows it as a customer want, Quicken charges the user to pay the aggregator to collect the data and keep the software updated. EWC is a "get what you pay for" example. Direct Connect is more reliable because it's direct, like the name implies, to a server at the bank no middleman but kind of pricey for both the bank and Quicken because there is no economy of scale like there is with EWC. Direct Connect is dying off because users don't want to pay for it either directly when charged by the bank or through increased cost of the software.

You seem to have aa pretty tight grip on this EWC thing. You talked of exception reports. I believe that there are certainly enough Quicken Users who use WF, Chase, BofA, USBank, who are having problems. How do users cause an exception report to be generated? Your post is the first that I have seen reference to this. I use 3 of the 4 banks above on a daily basis, None of them are going to initiate any kind of interface with Quicken. Complaining to them is useless. I have know idea who the 3rd party aggregator is, so we can't contact them. This site is supposedly monitored by Quicken, if this is the path, Quicken certainly is not building a supportive relationship here. That only leaves the Quicken Customer Support path. I will not comment on the canned script readers with accents implying a foreign location. How does a Quicken software licensee get something to happen?

That's the rub. You can't, as a Quicken user, force the bank/credit union OR Quicken to get together and resolve this issue.

The EWC screen scraper is a perfect example of how things go bad. As mentioned, the bank/CU has every right to make changes to their website. But when they do, they muck up what's screen scraped from their site. And since Quicken gets no reimbursement for EWC, it's not really a high enough priority for them. And let's face it, the bank/CU could really care less whether Quicken customers are able to download transactions from their site.

Markus, isn't it correct that banks PAY Quicken a rather hefty sum to have Direct Connect associated with their bank and Quicken? And isn't that the reason that so many banks, even the large ones, have stopped providing Direct Connect? And of course, the smaller banks and credit unions, as you have mentioned, never supported Direct Connect. It's all in the name of dollars...whatever the bank can save, they keep.

It's also another reason why most major credit cards DO use Direct Connect to download transactions. They charge us, the customer, enough in the way of annual fees and exhorbitant interest rates that they can pay Quicken for Direct Connect.

And are most of you aware that the merchant ALSO pays the credit card company a fee for every charge they record? And that fee is NOT static. It depends on the type of card we have. For example, a rewards card has a higher merchant rate percentage than non-rewards cards. Prior to being retired, my merchant credit card statement could have 10-12 different fees per "swipe" and 10-12 percentage fees as well.

Example: ' And since Quicken gets no reimbursement for EWC, it's not really a high enough priority for them.'

Quicken does get compensated for EWC. We pay for Quicken. Transaction download is part of what we pay for. It is one of the features that bring a lot of customers to Quicken. Quicken promised transaction download to us. Quicken is compensated.

Please do not quote the EULA. The lawyers way to make any liability the company may have to basically claim you, the customer, pay us for something, but we, the company, don't have to deliver anything to you, the customer.

The "merchant discount" (as it's properly called) is dependent upon the type of card, the issuing bank, the size of the individual transaction and the total monthly volume and total $ of transactions deposited by the merchant.

Dear Hershey,Earlier you suggested that markus1957 and gmalis1 collaborate on a response. I don't think that is possible, markus1957 just wants to help and gmalis1 seems intent on badmouthing Quicken whether he is right or wrong.

Slim- everyone here is trying to help; sometimes the answers are unsatisfying despite being factual. Many EWC FI's connect via unreliable means so on any given day (and for a period of days thereafter) there are going to be unhappy users. $60 every 3 years for Premier (Amazon costs and even less for Deluxe $35), is not enough for a 99% reliable connection, much less for the other features Quicken provides; thus EWC was born so a very small number of 3rd party aggregators can leverage tens of thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands) of users to do it on the cheap. You can try switching to a different product but they will likely use the same aggregator/methods as Quicken does and experience the same issues. Go to their user boards and you will see the same complaints often at the same time about problem FI's. Quicken can do more, even as it has been improving response to EWC outages, but it will never be a method that most would term reliable; there's just no money in it so it will have to remain a low cost add-on unless the banks get together and agree to a provide a standardized download portal. Don't hold your breath.

My main bank, BMO-Harris is an unreliable EWC provider, both the banking side and credit card side. Fortunately they both offer QFX Web Connect downloads and a couple of clicks (launched right in Quicken) will download multiple accounts, so in the end it is much less frustrating than dealing with EWC. Even though I periodically try EWC for a while and suffer the frustration of bad connections; I always return to Web Connect. BMO should be reliable because they offer QFX and a path for Quicken to get the data without scraping the website page. But, they periodically insert informational web pages after logon and before the data download screen so often that EWC just can't deal with it.

Use direct connect whenever it is available. I keep seeing Chase brought up in this thread as an EWC FI. Chase is also a free direct connect provider so anyone using it with EWC gets no sympathy from me. Why would you do that?

That's funny Markus...because my main bank is also BMO-Harris and I can use two fingers as the number of times that I've had problems downloading transactions from them using Express Web Connect. And in those cases I've either been able to download at the next session or clicking on the gear in the BMO-Harris register has downloaded the transactions just fine.

I have NEVER had to Web Connect to BMO Harris to get my transactions downloaded.

So, here we have two separate users, using the same bank, with two completely different experiences.

That is weird! It's been a year since I tried the banking side, but I just tried the credit card side a couple of months ago. I'm always looking to correlate check numbers anyway with payees (I don't manually enter and match) so for me web connect is more convenient. Maybe I'll start trying EWC with my testing account to see how it behaves. Thanks for the tip.

I am happy to report that with a little digging and taking some chances, I was able to update all my accounts using my bank's export feature, saving the file to my system, and then when I opened that file, it automatically when into the "downloaded transactions" section of my Quicken account and I was able to accept them and update all my accounts. Having said that....WHEW that I was able to do that, because the other two programs I tried, I was unsuccessful with. BUT, and this is not huge, but just a pain in my *ss as it takes more effort. I didn't want to have to do it this way, but if it gets the transactions into my Quicken accounts, then so be it. It was just so much easier when with one click, the update did all my updates at once. I have 9 accounts I have to manually export from the bank now....not super convenient. At this point, it's the best alternative and I have to be happy with it.

DLL, I forget the details of what you have tried. I am glad you found a solution that works for you.

If you haven't, you could contact each of the FI's involved, ask for their IT support customer service, and ask if they have a Direct Connect service available. If they do and if they turn it on for you, you should be able to One Step for those FIs.

I contacted my bank and asked. They offer the export option as a service to their customers (I'm going to reiterate here that I am using a very rural bank), but they don't offer support for it. She also said they don't have Direct Connect service available. When I asked if I could talk to IT, she said they just have IT for the bank, not us customers. She had basically no clue what to tell me how to get these accounts to all download in one try. So, yay that we have the service and the ability to export, but nay on getting any help and certainly nay on Direct Connect. Wow....so I guess they will have to all be done one at a time like I did.

But would you assume gmailis1, that they in fact don't have Direct Connect? I mean, she said they didn't. I know she isn't an IT expert, but she acted like she knew what that meant and they didn't have it. On the other hand, when I asked her if she used Quicken personally, she did not and had no idea how to export the transactions so.......

I also read your above response about the fidir.exe and did a search on my system for that, and I returned nothing.

1 Web Connect. You go to your bank's web site and download a .qfx (or .ofx) file, then import that file into Quicken. You've already done it that way.

2 Express Web Connect. You use One Step Update to download transactions. Or you can right click on the gear in the upper right of the bank's register in Quicken and select "Download transactions". This apparently does NOT work for you.

Sometimes using the gear in the register method works better than One Step Update. Don't ask me why. It just does.

Also, I would diligently read Markus1957's link above. It is a very good and comprehensive way to troubleshoot Express Web Connect problems.

If those recommendations don't get your transactions to download via Express Web Connect, then the problem is with your bank/credit union.

At least you can download via Web Connect. I wouldn't be happy about that either, but at least you can get your transactions into Quicken aside from manually entering them.

gmails1, I very much appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions, I really do. I will try the gear way and if that doesn't work and when I have more time, I will go back to Markus1957's link to try to troubleshoot. You've been a HUGE help and again, it is very much appreciated!!

I am having a similar problem with the Garden Savings Federal Credit Union. Suddenly it no longer works. I deactivated the accounts, I've tried to create new ones - it always claims my login credentials are wrong.

Thanks for the response. Actually, I started with the Credit Union. They have been trying to figure out what is wrong for two weeks. I have sent them various files, screen shots, etc. I just get a message that my login credentials are wrong. It has worked for me for 10 years with them and suddenly it stops. The Credit Union claims they have had the same host (they don't' host the online banking themselves - not uncommon) and have made no recent changes. So I'm stuck. I am temporarily downloading from their web, but I have three different accounts with this institution, so it is painful. I just want what I had for many years. I hate the finger pointing when these problems arise (FI says it is Quicken, Quicken says it is the FI) - it is like being at work when the hardware guys blame the software guys and vice versa. I am concerned that Quicken has no competition in this space and when they do have a problem (maybe they do here or don't but over the last week there seems to be a spike in complaints on this same issue involving various financial institutions) they appear to be in no rush to correct it - where else will their customers go?

There are plenty of personal finance software applications for Windows or Mac available now.

Some of them are Cloud based, where you data resides on their servers. Some have your data on your local hard drive.

The issue I find is that right now, Quicken downloads all my accounts without manual intervention EXCEPT for some wacky investment accounts that hold annuities. Quicken won't download those. But when I look at other software, my main bank (which is a multi-state bank that is not uncommon) will not download to most. So, like you I'd be stuck with a Web Connect type of download.

I don't want that.

Amazingly, the ONE software that works for me, including all those wacky investment accounts, is Mint. Reliable downloads, so far. If one fails or if an online bill gets stuck, I find their support to be excellent in that issues are acknowledged and usually addressed within a day or two and almost always fixed.

Investment reports are very poor with Mint, but I can go to my investment companies and get the info that I need. At least Mint downloads my wacky investments and gives me the total of those investments...which is all I'm really looking at.

For me, I just want reliable downloads, categorization and tags for tax time and simple and easy reports. For advanced reporting I purchased MintToReport ($29) which uses Mint's .csv transaction file, puts it locally on your drive and has a superior report generator with more options than I could possibly ever use.

When Quicken goes subscription next year and they announce that they will freeze your data if your subscription lapses and if the price is not what I want to pay, I'll just move on.

I agree with you totally. I have not heard about the subscription service news. With the lack of responsiveness from Quicken, I'm likely to leave if that's the case. Will check out alternatives, particularly Mint. I guess I just remember Money being the big competitor and it is gone.Thanks.

One of the FIs (Veridian) that I am having issues with has an extra step in the login process. I enter my user name and ID then I'm given a code to enter then I am presented with my account information.

This has been in place for a long time but I wonder if it is getting in the way of Q getting to my account info. None of the other EW connected accounts have this however they continue to fail with the same cc-501 error.

Target is another account that I continue to get the cc-501 error and it does NOT have 2 step authentication. Kohls is another.

Roger, I had a similar experience when this first started failing. I would get that added request to enter a code displayed (ensuring I wasn't a computer), but that failed. I don't know what's going on. After the various posts here, I've gone back to my FI.

Next time you get that type of security prompt screen error, try using the gear icon with Update Now from the problem account register. If those added security prompts are ever going to work in Quicken, it will be with the gear icon because you are getting a real-time call to the actual FI server and not just going through the Quicken EWC server. I'm not saying it will always work, only that using the gear icon method provides the highest probability of success.

I give up! The 2 step authentication is not new to my CU and for months/years I could use One Step every week without issue even though the user experience for online banking was multiple step. I try the gear icon and get the same fricking results every single time. It is not a security prompt screen error. It is the same cc-501 error, it's not your fault, it's a server error BS.

Something changed and no one wants to admit it. None of my EW connections work - period!

Roger, you and I are in the same boat. I, too, tried the gear icon and got nowhere. This Quicken issue has been a nightmare and sadly, nothing is being done on their end to fix it. It isn't coincidental that we are all having this problem. I expect more from them and we aren't getting it.

Roger, If ALL EWC connections fail that really points to a setup issue in your machine. I'm using Q17 with Win 10 and get 2 EWC accounts (Kohls & PayPal) just fine every day. I tested BMO Harris the other day on another machine and it also worked.

If the Step 5, Add Account process in the link does not work, you really need to look at the connection related steps in 6 and higher. Proxy server?, firewall settings? Something in the setup is killing or failing to make the connection with the EWC server. There are always issues with individual EWC FI's but when ALL are involved, it is most ALWAYS a machine setup issue unless it is a system wide EWC outage or 3rd party throttling of aggregator connections. It's not a system wide EWC outage.

One final sledge hammer approach is to deactivate every EWC account in your data file, including any hidden accounts. Go to Online Center, hold Ctrl + Shift keys while clicking Update/Send. Click reset CC Credentials and proceed with update. This will delete your EWC profile in your data file and on the server. Then close/open Quicken and re-establish your EWC accounts using Step 5. If that does not work, given that we have Kohl's in common as an EWC FI and Kohls works in my file, the issue must lie in your machine setup.

Adding- if you create a new data file from scratch and just add Kohls, if it does not work, you can also be pretty much assured that it is a setup issue with your machine without going thru the brute force process above.

I am having similar problems. The sledge hammer approach sounds scary. In my case the EWC is working with some FI and not others. I fear that in creating everything from scratch I might lose the working functionality that I have.

Markus I was down to the same conclusion a couple weeks ago. That's when I called my ISP with the specifics to see if there was something in their environment that changed or could be blocking me. They could find no change or identify any setting that would impact the downloads. We checked my router firewall and there is nothing indicating a block and I had not changed settings. I turned it off and it failed. I've looked at my Norton and there is nothing blocking and no changes have been made. I have turned it off and it fails. I have added my EWC accounts to my safe list and that does not make a difference.

I attempted all of the same EWC connections from a Win10 laptop with the same data file that I know worked until mid-Feb but using my cellular hotspot link and it fails there too. These steps were to eliminate things like firewalls, proxy, etc.

So I have 2 computers on the same network and on different networks that worked fine until mid-Feb. I say "fine" if intermittent/periodic failures don't count.

I go back to my original thought about Win10. My issue goes back to when i first went to Win10. I suspected Q2015 might not be compatible with 10 after my downloads began failing so I upgraded to 2017. It worked okay for awhile be is now failing consistently.

markus1957, I think you get 5 out of 3 stars today! I went through your sledge hammer suggestion and was immediately able to add my Kohl's account connected via EWC. I've successfully added a couple others and am going thru my Veridian accounts now. All but a credit card have been successfully added. That specific account still gets the "no information" error but the others are now connected.

Now, I wonder why Q does not have that in their knowledge base for techs to go to early in the troubleshooting. They spent close to 8 hours total in chat and phone support sessions going through everything else except clearing out the accounts.

If you have connections at Q, please ask them to get that out to people. It makes sense to clear it out but who knew those keystrokes to accomplish it.

If this holds, I'll give you another star on Tuesday markus1957. Thank you!!

I just had a very good phone conversation with Quicken support (Chris). We went through basically all of the suggestions here and then some. I have uploaded to Quicken several files. My issue (and hopefully the solution for others) is being escalated. They said this might take a day or two. Fingers crossed.

Here's the latest - Sounds like they have an issue that needs to be fixed

We receive the case that was escalated to our
team, upon checking the log files associated with your case we found out that
your issue will have to be submitted to our scripts team.

Please DO NOT REPLY to this email as we escalate your issue to our engineering
team. We might lose you in the process or queue of our Scripts team that may
result in delayed response of updates from them. We will immediately notify you
once we got feedback from our scripts team.

Well I guess I have prematurely given Quicken too much credit. The escalation resulted in a response that this is a valid error. I should re-enter my credentials. REALLY? That's the problem!!! I enter the credentials REPEATEDLY (and CORRECTLY) and I get the error message. The person I talked even asked me the format of my password (number of letters, characters, numbers) to ensure there was nothing odd about it (even though it worked fine for months) before escalating this. So now I have to start over again, because Quicken THINKS they've solved this. Unbelievable!!!

Still going back and forth, spent an hour on the phone yesterday. Again, really nice guy on the phone, trying to help. He put me on hold a few times to call the escalation team to follow-up with them. Unfortunately I had to drop off while on hold the second time, hadn't planned on spending an hour. Later that night, I received an email they were working it, another saying it was CLOSED and asked me to do a survey (no kidding) and a third saying ignore the CLOSED email (really) it was an error in their system and they are working to resolve the issue. So the good news is they seem very serious about chasing it down. I've been doing the screen share thing with them, they have been checking everything. Surprisingly they have not simply stated it is an issue with my FI, they keep wanting to escalate to the "script team", so I think they believe the problem is on their end. I told them several people are here posting with a similar problem. Once again, fingers crossed - let's see what tomorrow brings.

I can't help but wonder if this has a lot to do with the current ongoing troubles in the product. Interesting perspective/opinion in this article.

"Quicken needs a new kitchen, bathrooms, central air and upgraded boiler – in other words a complete gutjob. Putting new vinyl siding might make it look nice if H.I.G. is looking for a quick sale, but the issues will shine through when you do an inspection. For at least the past 5–6 years Quicken has been piecemealed together, and this is what led them to where they are now."

I've tried all of the fixes as reported on the topic. They work at first, but then fail for one error or another. I've just tried the update and I get a cc-501 error for the umteen time. One comment that I can make. I have 3 quicken files that I monitor, Two give me errors and the middle one works fine. I don't believe that it's a bank issue.. I use windows 10 and have since it's conception. I didn't have any problems till first part of this year. So, again that tells me it's a Quicken problem. Has anyone looked into the new owners of this product? Maybe trying to make money and not taking care of users.... Just a thought....

Problem solved - don't know if this will help anyone else but see below. I changed my password from 13 characters to 11 and it worked!! Now this doesn't explain why my 13 character password worked for several months and suddenly stopped - but it works now and that's all the matters. Hope this helps some others.

Usually CC 503 also that your password
doesn't meet the requirements posted on your financial institutions
website. A good example of this is a requirement that the password contain
between 8-12 characters, but you enter 13 characters. Your bank's
website has the ability to simply stop "reading" the characters
at 12 (ignoring the 13th) but Quicken must hard-stop at that 12th character. We've
noticed that your password format contains 13 characters. Therefore, we would
like to recommend you to try changing your password to something shorter like a
maximum of 8-10 characters perhaps then try reconnecting your accounts once
again in Quicken.

One last thought in interpreting their message - maybe it even needs to be shorter, so if you FI only supports an 8 character password and you use 11 might have the same problem. Not sure if your FI has their password rules posted, but maybe one more try with 8 characters??? Good luck!

And there is always the potential conflict with using special characters in an EWC account. There have been times in the past where entering special characters via the Add Account process worked fine but if you used them in the password vault screens they would not work. It's been a while since I've seen that but for those of you who can't find a workaround, you might test that to rule it out.

Yes I have heard of similar experiences. So while diagnosing this, best to keep it simple, no odd characters. Early on in this experience Quicken asked me about the structure of my password. I did have a dash in mine which apparently is fine. Turned out to be just too long.

I find this more than a little concerning given the "need" to shorten passwords, especially to financial sites! And because their infrastructure/application can't handle good practice for passwords/passphrases in 2017? They can't handle more than 11 characters? What year is it again? This sounds like the old RACF security - 8 alpha characters only! Good land.

If this is the way Quicken designs their product I need to run away very quickly. But then 13 characters worked before but now it doesn't.....hmmm?

Thanks for posting the suggestion but I'm not going to dummy down financial passwords for the convenience of Quicken.

I still cannot believe Quicken is not following this and other threads on the topic and weighing in. It speaks volumes.

Ok, I changed my password. The bank says it's a WEAK Password and needs to contain one number and one non-alpha character and can be up to 16 characters. My problems with the updates still are there... so the password is NOT the issue...

I too have been trying to correct a CC-506 problem to no avail. I am using Quicken 2017 and Windows 10. The problem kicked in (again) with the latest download. I have done everything that's been prompted; researched on line. Like many I am reluctant to pay extra for a support service that based on the communications in this chain does not seem to offer a practical solution to the problems identified in this chain for the fee charged. I certainly do not have the time to wait to speak with someone or stay on the phone. This is not the kind of project I could delegate to support staff on my behalf due to the confidential nature of the information involved. This is a consumer issue and since Quicken does business in every state users should report this to their respective state consumer agencies. I have used Quicken for more than 17 years and the decline in quality and stability of this product is worrisome.

sallymiller,CC 506 looks like an account nickname mismatch between Quicken and the bank.If the account nickname at the bank's website contains a "/' (slash), remove it. Ditto for (R) or (TM) characters in a circle. When done deactivate all accounts with this bank, including old, closed, hidden and forgotten accounts that are still activated.Reactivate accounts, making sure to click the "LINK" button on the activation page listing the accounts found at the bank and select the correct existing Quicken account register.

I spent a full hour on the phone and webex with the 2 lead Quicken engineers in India today regarding my original problem of failing EWC transactions in Premier 2017. They recreated the problem and retrieved log files and screen shots. They acknowledge there is a problem that could possibly be in the code or infrastructure and are going to stay on it to a resolution.

They did not recall that the last software update, which I received in the last 10 days, would have addressed this problem. But I have been able to successfully reconnect all but 2 credit card accounts since applying the update. When I try to connect the credit cards, it attempts to rejigger (undo) all the working accounts. They fortunately were able to see it happen real time today.

I'm happy Quicken is now seeing the problem and interested in getting to root cause.

I have spent many hours working with engineers from India over the last few weeks. We use webex so they see first hand the results I get. We have created many new data files with mixed results. All of my EWC accounts except one FI are now working consistently. However my Veridian CU connects with 3 different user accounts but consistently will not recognize a Visa account. Additionally many of the accounts, while appearing to connect fine, are not downloading transactions even though there are posted trans ready for download at the FI.

I've sent dozens of logs and screenshots of our work sessions and of my own tests. The engineers have ruled out corruption of the client data file and maintain it is a server issue. They make tweaks on the server based on the log results. After making adjustments I can connect for a couple of days then it stops working.

The individuals I am working with are experienced, top notch and dedicated to getting to root cause and a fix but it is taking considerable time on their part and mine.

Today I noticed this in the connlog: *** AddAccount failed due to missing Account Type *** As I examine the account use and types all are identified correctly in both the client UI and via the qdfview they provided me.

So the problem is real and it is not going away. It is like the whack-a-mole game. It keeps popping up. Others are seeing it with other EWC FI's. If we ever get to root cause I'll post the results.